Reality hits Ron Wyden’s idealism

At a lunch with fellow Senate Democrats last week, an eager Ron Wyden was ready to pitch his plan to permanently deal with a perennial Washington problem: the “doc fix.”

But when Wyden stood up to be recognized at the start of the lunch, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid looked the other way, seemingly ignoring his new Finance Committee chairman. When Wyden tried to speak, Reid cut him off, allowing several other senators to address the caucus instead. Finally, Reid let him talk, with aides later explaining that he was simply trying to give Wyden plenty of time to address his colleagues.

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The awkward episode came as Wyden was engaged in a quixotic effort to thwart a bill personally crafted by Reid and House Speaker John Boehner. The deal achieved exactly what Wyden didn’t want: a temporary patch in Medicare reimbursement rates that punted a long-term decision to another year. The measure passed the Senate over Wyden’s objection and President Barack Obama signed it into law on Tuesday.

The whole experience — especially Wyden’s public and private lobbying against the deal — ultimately resulted in ruffled feathers and a loss in the Oregon Democrat’s first major push since becoming Finance chairman in February. It underscores the limits of Wyden’s power and highlights how his famed idealism is running into the cold political reality of Capitol Hill.

“It certainly raised a lot of eyebrows,” said one Democratic source, who asked not to be named discussing private conversations. “You would have figured that Wyden would have wanted to start off [his chairmanship] and endear himself to a lot of people.”

The chairman’s maneuvering also suggests that Wyden may at times give Democratic leaders headaches in his role running the panel — which has vast oversight over tax, trade and health policy — much like his predecessor, Max Baucus of Montana. Unlike Baucus, a moderate who angered Democrats by pushing policies that irked liberals, Wyden’s views are more progressive. But Wyden, too, is known to occasionally break from his party — sometimes in a high-profile way, such as working with Republican Rep. Paul Ryan on a Medicare plan — even when the decks are clearly stacked against him.

“He has his ups and downs with most chairmen,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said of Reid. “But take a committee as important as Finance … I think you will find a vast majority of the time, the majority leader is working closely and cooperating with the leadership in those committees.”

In interviews on Tuesday, Wyden and Reid downplayed the friction, signaling they were ready to move on to the next issue before the panel, the renewal of a big package of tax breaks heavily sought by the business community. And as one of the biggest draws on the fundraising circuit because of his new chairmanship, Wyden is already playing a major role helping Democrats raise cash for the 2014 midterms, attending more than a dozen events for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and several meetings with big donors, something certain to put him in Reid’s good graces.

On the health care fight, Reid and Wyden agreed on the policy even if they were sharply divided on the tactics. Reid also wanted a permanent fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate but didn’t think such a deal was politically possible in this divided Congress.

“I’m on his side,” Reid said Tuesday of Wyden’s policy proposal.

“Sen. Reid and I have talked constantly through all this,” Wyden said.

Congress was racing to pass a plan by March 31 to avert a 24 percent scheduled cut in the reimbursement rate for doctors who service Medicare patients. Behind the scenes, Reid had reached out to Boehner to stave off those rate cuts for one year, putting together a $21 billion plan paid for by making certain modifications to Medicare and rearranging how some of the sequestration cuts are calculated.

In the eyes of Hill leadership in both parties, everything seemed to be moving seamlessly — until Wyden stepped in.